You have to think the New Orleans Saints are due to trade down in the NFL draft sooner or later. Mickey Loomis hasn’t traded down at all since 2007, and he’s never moved down in the first round during his two-decade run as their general manager.
But if there were a year to move down, get more picks and restock the roster, it’s this one. And that’s a scenario explored by RosterWatch’s Cody Carpentier in a recent 2024 mock draft. With playmaking tight end Brock Bowers in their sites, the Cincinnati Bengals traded up with the Saints — moving up from No. 18 to 14, sending a third-round pick to New Orleans (No. 80 overall) in the process.
Bowers has been a popular draft target among Saints fans desiring more firepower on offense, so trading out of the slot where he’s ultimately picked would sting. But this team does need more early-round picks (especially in such a thin draft class), and a small trade back like this would make sense. So who did they spend these picks on?
After moving back to No. 18, the Saints selected Texas defensive tackle Byron Murphy II, of whom Carpentier writes: “Murphy and his college teammate T’Vondre Sweat combined for a 34.9% Win Rate and 76 pressures, numbers that compare to the 2018 Clemson Interior duo of Christian Wilkins and Dexter Lawrence (29.7% Win Rate and 67 pressures).”
Murphy would bring a formidable presence to the Saints defensive line. Pairing him with Bryan Bresee could give New Orleans a dominant pair of interior linemen and improve on their run defense, which ranked 11th-worst in rushing yards per carry and per game allowed last season.
What about their other picks?
That’s where this mock draft gets interesting. Carpentier has the Saints spending their second-round choice (at No. 45, coming from the Denver Broncos) on a possible quarterback of the future: Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. He’s one of the most exciting prospects in this draft class after leading the Huskies to the national semifinals. Penix struggled to elevate his draft stock at Senior Bowl practices earlier this month, but he’s known as a gamer and should develop into a fine pro. Even if the Saints are committed to starting Derek Carr in 2024, it would be worth investing in a long-term answer at the position.
And as for that third-round pick coming from the Bengals (at No. 80): it’s used on one of Penix’s receivers at Washington, Ja’Lynn Polk. Polk is an impressive NFL prospect in his own right — he averaged 5.2 yards after the catch in his college career (a full yard better than Chris Olave and a yard-and-a-half more than Rashid Shaheed last year) while consistently winning on 50-50 balls. He plays with a lot of physicality and could add a dimension to the offense. Having familiarity with his quarterback would certainly help.
So is this realistic? Probably not. Loomis is one of the most aggressive draft-day decision-makers in the NFL and he doesn’t have a history of trading down or drafting quarterbacks early. But you never know. That trend has to break eventually. Maybe this is the year.
